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We're back! Thank you to everyone who supported us and prayed for us while we were gone. God did some major work and encouraged us in so many ways!

I may write one more post here later to talk about ministry in Moscow and what it looks like. But for now I just wanted to close out with a thank you. All the support means so much and truly makes these trips possible. We have to have these trips, especially to Moscow. The spiritual need is so great. Thank you for partnering with us.

I will be sending out a newsletter in the next few weeks about the trip with some specific stories to my supporters. You were very much so involved with this project, and I want you to know what it looked like at it's core.

Thanks again. God bless,
Stephen

Debriefing

Debriefing went well! We're leaving St. Petersburg in an hour on an overnight train, waking up in Moscow. Tomorrow will be a rest day to prepare us for our day of traveling home.

Can't wait to see you all soon. Processing the trip for the past two days has been a BIG help. It'll be great to be home to share more in detail what God has done in our hearts and the students we've met!

Love you all. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Do You Know What You Believe?

Most of us know what we think on certain subjects—our beliefs on controversial ideas, life, values, and on and on.

But I beg to ask this question:

Why?

Do we know WHY we believe these things?

Do you know why you believe life is valuable? Do you know why you go to church?

Or why you pray?
Or why you believe there's a heaven and a hell?
Or why you believe Jesus is God?
Or why He has the right to forgive you?

Or maybe why you don't agree with some/any of the above?

Do we really stop to examine the "Why?"

Yesterday three of us on the team grabbed a Russian bible and sat down to pray. We decided it was appropriate for us to give a bible to one student we've been meeting with over the past few weeks. (His name is Igor. He works at Dunkin' Donuts. He's pretty much the kindest, gentlest guy you'd ever meet.)

"Father, we want to show him how much we care about him. We want to show him truth, freedom, life, hope, joy. We want him to know YOU. Please help us to pick out verses to underline and bookmark that would most clearly show him You. Father, we don't want to overwhelm him, but just to show him (in a small way) that we love him, and care deeply about his heart—just as you do. Help us pick out the top 15 or 20 scriptures that You desire to use to reveal yourself to Him."

(The prayer was something like that, not word for word.. Consider it more like a paraphrase. Right?)

But that's where our hearts were, asking God to use His divine scripture to reveal Himself to one of His yearning children. To bring him home.

It went really well. After a short while the three of us agreed on a set of verses/passages and later marked them up with highlighter and a few bookmarks. We're going to write him a note in the front cover and give it on Saturday before we leave.

(So please pray over it.)

But it got me thinking: If YOU had to pick 15-20 verses or passages out of the bible (or just the New Testament) to best illustrate the truth of the gospel, Christ's deity, God's character—love and justice— What would you pick??

It's difficult. It really is. But it's an incredible exercise and I highly recommend it. If you need to do it in a group, do so! For us, doing it in a group helped because what one of us didn't know someone else offered, and vice versa.

Which then brings me back to the post's first question:

Do we know WHY we believe what we do?

Do we search the deepest parts of the scriptures to understand God? To really know Him? To nitpick the gritty details about our faith? To feel the weight of the implications?

Or do we simply rely on someone else to figure it all out for us? Maybe the overly spiritual guy down the street.. Or what about Pastor _________, "Yeah I'll just soak up everything he has to say via podcast, no need for the actual good book itself!"

If someone asked you for a written out statement of faith of your deepest held beliefs, could you back it up with scripture? For instance, "I believe Jesus' words are truth because He claimed it in John 14:6, and then resurrected from the dead (Luke 24), conquering what no man ever has."

At this point I can't say that I could write out a set of beliefs and back them all up with scripture, not even close. But that's a goal of mine when I get back, and I think a very healthy one! A healthy one not because God will like me anymore for knowing more scripture—He's already fully and completely in love with me, and YOU—

Even still, I'd really like to not only know what I believe, but why! Wouldn't you? Partner with me, let's all do it!

Encouragement And Things To Pray

God has been showering us with blessings over the past few weeks. He has opened doors to conversations that we never saw coming. He has brought encouragement when we least expected it, and reminded us time and time again that we're not in control,

That He's sovereign,

And that He's in love with every heart we talk to.

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One quick story: David and I met three students (one girl and two guys) one day at Linguistics who were anything but spiritually interested. As I held my breath to refrain from inhaling their cigarette smoke, we looked to initiate a deep conversation, but it didn't happen. They simply cared to discuss was how to get into clubs, how to woo girls with crude language, etc.

Nevertheless, we exchange numbers! As we walked away David and I prayed for their hearts, that they might feel a need to ask questions about life. We prayed that God might generate some sort of desire within themselves to know Him, because there wasn't anything we could do. It was one of the most discouraging conversations we'd had.

Saturday morning the girl of the group texted David to find out if we were still going to the park. David arranged for them to meet us on the platform at 1:30pm. I communicated to David that I hoped it was a good idea. Honestly, I thought it might be disruptive for the ministry as a whole. I wasn't too thrilled to have a group so disinterested in spiritual things. Who knows, maybe they'd continue to express a "too cool" mentality, preventing spiritually-thirsty students from hearing the gospel? (Deep down I knew that I could not see what God had planned, and I had to trust Him. But that's hard sometimes, ya know?)

At the platform we met two girls and one guy. One less guy and one more girl than eхpected. And as the afternoon progressed, I quickly learned that the negative attitudes I had attributed to the whole group only stemmed from the one guy who didn't come! The other guy, Alex, and I spent most of the afternoon together. We played catch with the baseball, played a board game with a big group, and then ended with one of the most encouraging spiritual conversations I'd had on the trip yet. He prays because he thinks it works, and he thinks that if the gospel is in fact true, that it is an "amazing" thing. We talked about hope, and how we put it in fleeting things, rather than satisfying truth.

Then it started to rain. We all ran for the trees and covered ourselves as quickly as possible. But I knew God was at work. In the conversation Alex agreed to meet and talk more. After the rain I asked him if we could continue the conversation we'd started. He agreed assuredly.

We're hanging out on Friday. I'm confident that he doesn't have a bible, and hope to give him one and encourage him in his budding faith.

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Stories like this have been prevalent. God shows up even when we have low expectations. Why? Paul would say, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves" 2 Cor. 4:7.

We carry the gospel around in our limited human selves. We can't see the future. We can't see the hearts He wants to change. We sin, sometime hurting the feelings of others even when that's our last desire. We lack faith in the glory His power and the weight of His love.

And IN THAT, the gospel points clearly to a God that so furiously cares. In our limitedness, people see His unlimited love and mercy.

How beautiful.

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6) -- the reality we carry with ourselves as speak to students. We have hope to offer, truth to encourage with, and power that only comes from God changing hearts.

We wait patiently for Him to show Himself. And He is. In small ways time and time again He is showing His faithfulness. Thank you for your prayers, they are powerful.

Hearts to pray for:

Max
Mark
Erik
Igor
Alex
Irina
Michael
Azar
Andrew
Ilya
Dasha
Sasha
Aljona
Ignat
Katya
Kristina
Dimitri
Dimitri
Susha
Max

I know there are more, but those are the students that are closest to our ministry team. Please pray for amazing conversations this week, for continually flourishing relationships (even when we get back to the States), and that the hearts of these students would be opened to the sweetness of the gospel.

Thanks for all your love and support.
Stephen

Last Week of Ministry!

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement for the last few months, and weeks especially. It's hard to believe we're coming down to our last full week of ministry here in Moscow! This week will be our busiest one yet, full of appointments, an English club set up by one of our teams to converse with students, and several cultural activities.

As we're trying to finish wholeheartedly, please continue to pray. We've had many deep, spiritual conversations with students on campuses, at the park on Saturdays, and during appointments. I've strayed away from sharing many specific stories because it would take too long because there are so many. But please know that God has been doing some amazing things, bringing encouragement when it's least expected!

Please pray:

--that God would guide our steps to those who need Him badly
--that our hearts would break for them, that they don't have Christ
--that we would speak as God would desire for us to this week, in appointments and on campus
--that we would be able to discern the heart needs of those we talk to so that we can respond accordingly, not being pushy and respecting where they're at, while also keeping in mind the number one love story we have to share
--that students' eyes would be enlightened to the gospel, it's freedom, hope, peace, and joy
--that we would see God work in our lives and those around us in ways we would never expect

The next few posts will be encouraging stories from the past two weeks!! I cant wait to share with you the little ways God has shown His love, for us and for the Moscow students!! He is always good.

Love you all,
Stephen

The Omnipresent Nature of Sin

Sin is everywhere, it's not localized to a location, profession or circumstance. If you struggle with greed as a business man, greed will not disappear if you decide to suddenly enter the field of education and teach at a university. Somehow, whether its as you pass the Salvation Army bell ringer during Christmas or when a waiter messes up the check at a colleague dinner, the greed will appear. It's not restrained, you can't simply escape it!

Okay, maybe changing fields away from such a lucrative one will provide less opportunities for greed to manifest itself. Definitely true. And more often than not, it's a good decision to remove yourself from such a situation, especially if that greed could slowly consume you past the point of wise financial decisions to cheating, stealing, insider trading, etc.

Is it not true though, that removing yourself from business will not protect you from the ability of something else to become your god? For instance, pride? (We could even say that pride may have been greed's fuel in the first place, as more money means more opportunities, more success, more eyes on me.) You soon discover that the avoidance of greed by quitting business and becoming a professor left you widely vulnerable to the sin of pride--knowing more, researching better, having more speaking engagements. These things then begin to consume. There's unrest when you're not at the top, just like the unrest you felt at the colleague dinner when you were cheated out of five dollars.

Hopeless?

Seem like a downward slope?

It's likely that this game of avoidance is the #1 pitfall of our Christian culture. It's likely that we're doomed to always struggle, regardless of location, status, or emotional state. It's likely that sin will appear, even when we try to avoid it so avidly.

Why can't we just cure ourselves of our parts that we can't stand? Why can't I come to Moscow and see my pride simply disappear? Maybe it does become easier to get over yourself in a city of 12-15 million. But for me, when such a struggle seems to improve, something else, whether impatience or greed, quickly fills its shoes.

So if sin management doesn't work...if we can't just cover up impatience by finding new friends...if we can't just cover up a struggle with the approval of others by making better grades...if we can't simply change circumstances to deal with our sin...

What

Do

We

Do?

Jesus would say, focus on Him. Jesus would say, "You're not supposed to be able to fix yourself." Jesus would tell us to embrace His love, chew on it, let it envelope and overwhelm us. He would say, "I've already conquered it for you, if you'll just let me."

"It is finished."

Your sin doesn't own you. Your sin does not define you. You may battle it, but it is not YOU. If you accept Christ's redeeming love, then Christ defines you. You are His. And He conquered.

Therefore, if we want to overcome our bad parts, we must turn our eyes from self-condemnation and self-help books to the ridiculous, outrageously beautiful love that God manifested in His Son Jesus Christ.

As we focus more on the love of Christ, it's implications, and its relevance (of which this is a discussion), the more we will value it. The more of Him we see and discover, the more valuable to us He will appear. And as His value increases, the value of everything else of this world surely decreases.

As a dirty, sinful woman cried for mercy at His feet, Jesus explained His radical acceptance of her to a religious leader by saying this, "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Luke 7:47

We must break free from the trap of trying to trim down our sin by changing circumstances, because the act of sin is only the symptom. The real issue is one of the heart much deeper down, and the only cure is to allow ourselves to fall more in love with HIM, Christ, for how great His mercy truly is. We must cling to Christ, beg Him for intimacy, and allow ourselves to enter a childlike sense of awe. What does God promise?

"Delight yourself in Me;
And I will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

We get more of Him.
The world is minimally appealing when compared to this grand of a love.
And we grow like we've never grown before.

Met with Andrew today

David and I met with Andrew today. It was an awesome conversation. I'd say it's very likely he is a believer! It would be hard to dissect the whole conversation by typing, but it covered Russian history, tradition, Orthodox Church beliefs and so on.

We asked lots of questions, and he asked back.

It ended with a simple smile and hand shake.

"Maybe we'll get to talk again next week," all three of us hoped as we departed. He is very very busy studying for exams, and couldn't promise anything about his schedule. But his gentle smile and grateful thanks led me to believe that we'll see him again soon.

As David and I walked away we simply turned to each other and said, "Well that was awesome." It's very rare to find believers here, and Andrew's refreshing belief and faith were encouraging to us. Our desire is to be able to connect him with Cru's longterm staff here, that he might find community, be built up and encouraged in his faith. (Pease pray that he would long for these things too!)

Tonight we have team time to enjoy each other's company. We're going to eat at TGI Fridays, which should be a great American break.

Thanks for your prayers. Conversations like the one we had today do NOT happen apart from the Holy Spirit moving in our hearts and the hearts around us. Please continue!

Love you all.